I never understood the allure of Monster Hunter. Sure, challenging giant monsters with a simple weapon is a primal fantasy that some people have, but what else does it offer? I had heard this one was a good entry point to the series and thought it was time to give it a fair shot. How did it land? Let’s get into it.

You are the hunter, an individual gifted with the ability to slay giant monsters. How are you different from anyone else? I have no idea. Anyway, you are sent to help an expedition team as they have discovered a lost child from a people that had long been unknown. These people are the Keepers, they have been responsible for keeping the land healthy for years. (Though the story isn’t the main draw of these games, I won’t spoil key points here.) You, Alma, Gemma and Olivia are responsible for getting the child (Nata) back home to his people and along the way you discover some creatures acting strangely. On top of taking Nata home, you’ll need to discover the origin of their plight and save the land from destruction.

Through the story you’ll get to know Nata and your companions in a general sense. Most of them aren’t too complex. Nata has the most character development, but the one that interested me most was Olivia. She has her own crew and you can tell by her demeanor that she's seen a lot. I was interested in her adventures, but we don’t get a lot of time with her. As the player character, you’re less of a blank slate than I expected. You’re the expert on monster hunting and take charge a good amount of the time. When you don’t need to speak up, you don’t. You’re basically the perfect leader. There are no dialogue choices to be made, so everyone’s hunter will act the same, which goes against the idea of a created character. It’s an interesting take. Alma is the researcher and is intrigued by the different monsters, fauna and cultures she witnesses. During first meetings and other dealings with local groups, she is always respectful. Though she doesn’t change much during the story, her character felt mature enough to not really need any development. Nata’s journey is central to the plot, so I won’t say much about it. He goes through a lot of complicated emotions and truly thinks through things like an adult. I think he’s neat. Gemma is just a blacksmith… Who looks cool. That’s it.

As a side note to the story and characters, the writing is not good at all. There were so many awkward transitions in conversation and downright repetition. It felt badly edited. There were conversations where it seemed like there was dialogue missing or replaced with a totally different line. It left me confused and unable to stay fully invested in the plot and engrossed in the world.

Speaking of the world, it’s beautiful. The different ecosystems and creatures within them were a sight to behold. Artistically, it’s a wonder to look at. I loved taking in the lush environments and seeing the massive mountains or trees looming in the distance. It really feels like an entire world is out there. The game takes place in open areas rather than an entirely open world, however. Generally, this type of approach allows developers to focus on crafting areas with specific ideas in mind. You can see the intentional design of each area in the curated locales that were crafted. The honeycomb wall and red-web spider nest were standouts for me. Though it had a great artistic style, I’d be remiss to not mention performance. I have a middle-high end pc and it was a mess. Textures wouldn’t load right half the time and many missions crashed the game multiple times. There were a couple updates and it has improved, but it was a huge turnoff initially.

Another aspect of the game is its combat. I won’t pretend to be an expert on this series, but I did think the combat was relatively simplistic. This isn’t to the detriment of my enjoyment though. Hacking and slashing at massive beasts, slicing weak points and harvesting materials is a relatively pleasurable grind. I will say that the structure of these fights got repetitive really quickly. Pretty much every fight in the main story went like this: fight, chase, fight, chase, fight and win. There were probably two instances where I didn’t have to chase a beast during the fight. I get that “hunting monsters” is literally the name of the game, but I would’ve appreciated more setpieces for more of the fights.

I also need to mention the abundance of systems and menus in this game. There’s a lot to keep track of. You have the rations to pick up each in-game day which can be used for meals to improve your stats before hunts; there’s a system for gem crafting that let you add skills to armor which you also craft with monster parts; there’s a research system where you get points based on capturing small creatures like insects and frogs; you also have the option to fish! These systems aren’t well explained and many can be left by the wayside. If you do decide to interact with them all, good luck. Using the menus and storage systems makes me dizzy. There are so many icons, text boxes and submenus that I still feel like I’m missing something. You have three options for storage as well; one is on your person, the other on your mount (Seikret) and the last one is in your tent. Transferring anything to your character involves direct interaction with the storage place. You can’t auto-transfer items you pick up, when your satchel is full, to your Seikret or back to your camp storage nor can you get items from camp without going into your tent. (I still don’t know how to put anything in my Sekret pouch.) Trying to use the storage system through the sea of menus and poor explanation was a struggle and it really shouldn’t have been.

Because of the insane amount of menus, the control scheme suffers. I genuinely have no idea how anyone could play this with a mouse and keyboard. Even with a controller, it was a struggle to remember how to use items mid battle. To use an item, you can register it to your X button (Square for PS) by holding the left bumper and pressing B or X to cycle through the menu to select it. After selecting, it can be used with a quick press of X. This isn’t too bad unless you need to change items during the fight. I spent a lot of hunts running around the monster in a circle while cycling through the menu to find the right item. There’s another quick menu that you’ll use in a similar fashion. Holding the left bumper lets you use the right stick menu to select the blade sharpener, which is another system you need to keep track of during battle. Don’t worry, there are four more menus you can access this way. Holding the right bumper and using the d-pad will let you pick from three other menus that change the options available to you with the right stick. It’s a control scheme nightmare in all honesty. I accidentally used items way too often resulting in moderate frustration, but I’m not sure what they could do other than cut down on the fluff.

I’ve played a bit of the post-story content, but I don’t think I’ll stick with it much longer. Monster Hunter is a series that many people love and I can see the appeal, even if I don’t fully understand it. It definitely has its fun moments in the spectacle of the beasts and environments, but the insane amount of systems requires a patience for micromanagement that I don’t have. Through the technical issues, bad writing and a complicated control scheme, I had fun. It wasn’t too difficult, but the different monsters kept me engaged throughout the story and using the monster parts to craft armor is a solid gameplay loop. If you already like Monster Hunter, you’ll probably play it, but if you’re not already a fan and you acclimate to a multitude of systems easily, give it a shot. You’ll most likely have a good time.